#141- CODE C

The other day, I met the owner of CODE C (at the Sunset Plaza), Andrea at the Designers & Agents (the apparel trade show) and I thought, “he and his boutique is perfect for my assignment for the special article about casual wear & jeans from overseas (this special article is only twice a year from L.A. by me) for Senken-Shimbun / newspaper (major Japanese fashion trade newspaper, similar to WWD and California Apparel News).”

Same day at night, Andrea wrote me a nice email, “It was nice to meet you.”

Yes, he is very humble and he has great energy! Yes, he is perfect for my article!

So, I asked Andrea in my reply email, “Are you interested in appear in Senken-newspaper for the special article regarding casual wear & jeans from overseas? ” He said, Yes!

The article came out on yesterday, February 18th in Japan. So I translated my article in English from my original article in Japanese. Please see below.

This translation is my rough translation. My Japanese article is much much better than this translation, but I just wanted to share great information of CODE C with you.

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February 18, 2011 on Senken-Shimbun

“From Oversea / from U.S.A.” (This article / section is special assignment for journalists around the world. My assignment is twice a year for this section from Los Angeles.)

Headline:
CODE C
Customer value and Assortment of products by the unique way

Photo caption:
The co-owner, Mr. Rossetto

By Yoko Fujimoto, writer in Los Angeles

While many businesses closed down and went into bankruptcy because of recession, there is a boutique, CODE C which is doing well. I interviewed the co-owner of this boutique, Mr. Andrea Rossetto who emphasized, “We don’t need to worry about the recession if we have everything, business concept, assortment of products by the unique way, great customer services and strategy.”

Experience and Strategy:

In Los Angeles (West Hollywood), CODE C (total floor area: 3000 square foot) opened at Sunset Plaza in August, 2009. Mr. Rossetto (who worked at BENETTON for 23 years and he has an experience of brand developer for west coast in U.S.A. at BENETTON and he also has experience for management for two other fashion company’s shops) and his wife, Marzia opened this boutique with the concept, “Elegant boutique, suggest to customers a life style of the fusion of art and fashion.”

Mr. Rossetto said, “We are focusing on six brands, which are VIVIENNE WESTWOOD, VIKTOR&ROLF, DSQUARED, VALEJ POBEG etc, because we want customers understand well for these product’s appeal. We are trying to make our boutique different from the other boutiques which have many products and they don’t have any specialties, so we made partnerships with fashion designers and we are also exhibiting arts and selling them.” The event which had business tie up with a stylist made one week’s profit within two hours with around 25 customers.

Spirit of the 24 hour business:

There are only two denim brands at this boutique, HABITUAL and HYSTERIC GLAMOUR. CODE C found a kindred spirit in HABITUAL says “Especially we are in the recession, we would like to focus on our customers (small boutiques) value. We are going to make strong communication with small boutiques as our major customers which we are having partnerships”, so CODE C is being a HABITUAL’s flagship store.

Mr. Rossetto emphasized that “We put the HABITUAL’s opinion (HABITUAL wanted to sell products with other high end brands) into practice and we felt sympathy for HYSTERIC GLAMOUR’s concept (HYSTERIC GLAMOUR wants slow growth). The key to success is a win-win situation. Partnership business with brands & local artists and personal customer service (focus on the social media & world of mouth) are working well. My motto is to deal with customers (brands and customers at the boutique) for 24 hour business.” Their sales mark is 50% growth this year.

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How was my translation? I hope you enjoyed it or learned something from Andrea.

If you have any questions, go to CODE C at Sunset Plaza or visit at www.codecusa.com or meet Andrea & Marzia at CODE C :)

I was thinking about “how can we resolve issues of terrorism
and war in this world, can we talk instead of fighting?”

And then I realized “I need to think about my issue
first” (since I moved into my apartment in Montrose one year ago)… yes, I have
an issue about my living situation… my upstairs neighbor (64 years old woman who is not working) has been waking me up
every night (around 11:15pm, 12:15am and 1:15am) with loud squeezing footsteps (it sounds not normal & regular footsteps) for one year… I had to
call police twice, and I fought with this neighbor twice…

I tried to go to bed at the same time when this neighbor
goes to bed… it doesn’t work (for me late night ene…

I really think that the founder of Kitson, Mr. Fraser
Kitson Ross is genius for marketing & business. He knows how to entertain
customer, and he knows what L.A. is and how to enjoy L.A.

About Kitson and Fraser, I have written a lot on Senken-Shimbun
and LA Celeb (their business closed, but it was a popular Japanese online
shopping site), and I also made a story about Kitson on Japanese TV program
(TBS TV).

At this time, I interviewed Fraser and wrote an article
about Kitson, him and his new store KITROSS on Senken-Shimbun (major Japanese
fashion business newspaper).

If you want to know about Kitson, Fraser and KITROSS,
read below.

My translation (into English) is not perfect, but my
Japanese article is more than perfect, ha ha…; )